Microcontroller Units

04/11/2013

An interesting opportunity for embedded hardware suppliers
caught the attention of the VDC M2M Embedded Platform team. The opportunity was
highlighted in a Boston Globe article this week about a local police department
that equipped a cruiser with a $28K Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) unit.
There were a number of eye-popping statistics starting with the fact that the
unit apparently paid for itself in the first 11 days it was deployed. The ROI
was accomplished from revenues generated by identifying vehicles and drivers
with expired licenses, registrations, inspections, or other unpaid fines and
fees. ALPRs can also be used for parking enforcement particularly
in areas where civilian officials want to encourage shoppers with low cost short
interval parking spaces. In this parking application, an official uses an ALPR to detect commuters and/or store workers
that try to take advantage of the potential arbitrage and fine them.

Now let’s look at the $28K bundle of embedded hardware and
software and speculate a bit on what is likely to be involved. The ALPR cited
by the Boston Globe had the capability to read 1,800 license plates per minute
and cover 4 lanes of traffic simultaneously. It can make those readings at
differential speeds of up to 150 mph. This is a key factor because the unit is
mounted on a cruiser as opposed to a parking or toll-taking lane where only the
vehicle would be moving and the zone where the license plate would be is more
predictable. Therefore there has to be a camera system capable of capturing a
wide field at varying focal lengths and light conditions. The torrent of data
from the camera system has to be rapidly processed to identify license plates
and simultaneously perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on 4 or more plates
in the field of view. Additionally, the system has to identify the state that
issued the plate. This is challenging because many states like Massachusetts
issue multiple types of specialty plates for sports teams and other
organizations or causes. States also control costs by not replacing license
plates until they practically fall apart. Therefore, it is fairly safe to say
that there would be approximately $10K in optics and high performance
processing inside the ALPR to accomplish the OCR function.

What happens next is important. We are going to make an
assumption and it is a big one. We will assume that the ALPR generates data that
supports law enforcement but this data will not be a cornerstone for court
cases. This means that the raw video would not need to be compressed and stored
for future reference while preserving chain of custody. For example, if the
ALPR were going to be used for moving traffic or criminal violations it would
need to have irrefutable video evidence that identified the driver as well as
speed measurement data. Because of our limited OCR assumption, the captured
data only needs to be combined with time stamps, GPS coordinates and, perhaps a
few operational parameters. As a result, this limited data set would be in the
order of kbytes per record as opposed to Mbytes per second for full video
archiving. Even so, this still represents several thousands of dollars per ALPR
unit for the additional embedded sensing, processing, storage, HMI and
communication hardware.

In our estimate, the next part of the ALPR application would
optimally involve cloud-based Big Data resources. The ALPR would transmit
captured data in real time and processed for matches in multiple databases. The
response back to the police cruiser would have to be rapid to be effective. The
most effective ALPR supporting infrastructure would have to combine data from
all municipalities, states, and federal agencies relevant to a particular
region. Suffice it to say, the cloud-based and communication services could
easily amount to several hundred dollars per month for each ALPR deployed.

The Boston Globe article stated that there were
already 87 ALPRs deployed in the state with another 7 Boston area police
departments adding 21 additional in the next month. Considering that
Massachusetts alone has over 350 cities and towns but the entire US represents
over 36,000 municipalities, the potential market for ALPRs and the embedded hardware inside
them would appear to be a huge and rapidly growing opportunity.

03/25/2013

In the first two installments of this blog series (Part 1)(Part 2), we’ve touched on a variety of new developments that may allow continuing miniaturization, despite predictions of doom from some pundits. We’ve talked about some interesting things like single atom transistors, 3-D ICs and extreme ultra-violet lithography. Although conventional wisdom places the limit of silicon transistors at about 11 nm, some folks at Intel have said that they have a solution for shrinking silicon down to 10 nm, and think that they may be able to go as far as 5 nm. But the science-fiction nut in me is most fascinated by new developments at IBM and Berkeley.

Terrestrial life as we know it is, of course, based on carbon. SF writers – and, indeed, some scientists – have proposed that, because carbon and silicon share many chemical properties (for example, the ability to form long-chain polymers), it might be possible to not only derive a silicon-based organic chemistry, but to actually have silicon-based life somewhere in this wondrous and infinite universe. Interesting, but as yet still science fiction.

However, what if we were to turn this around, and look at carbon and silicon from another angle? That’s essentially what’s going on at IBM, Berkeley and other research facilities.

As we all know, today’s semiconductor technology is based on silicon. But what if we were to substitute carbon for silicon? Would it be possible to create carbon-based semiconductors? Carbon atoms are far smaller than their silicon counterparts, so this might enable heretofore unimaginable miniaturization.

IBM’s people have successfully fabricated and evaluated a structure comprising an array of 10,000 carbon nanotube transistors on a single substrate. In essence, a carbon nanotube is a single-atom thick sheet of carbon, rolled into a tube. Normally, these appear as a mix of metallic and semiconducting types but, to create a computing device, the metallic types must be removed. And, as if that wasn’t tough enough, the placement and alignment of the tubes on a substrate must be precisely controlled. IBM has been able to accomplish this utilizing ion-exchange chemistry. Researchers at Berkeley have been able accomplish a similar feat, producing arrays both flexible and stretchable, which show great promise for developments such as foldable electronic pads, coatings that can monitor surfaces for cracks and other potential failures, “smart” clothing and even artificial electronic skin.

It is theorized that carbon nanotube transistor arrays, which can be produced with existing manufacturing processes, have the potential to yield CPU structures that are not only far smaller than their silicon counterparts, but are five to ten times faster than today’s silicon chips.

It’s not clear to me whether a single nanotube can only carry a single transistor, or whether it might be possible to produce many transistors at different locations on the surface of a single nanotube. While the latter may not be “do-able” today, who can say what will be possible tomorrow?

IBM scientists have also been able to determine that only twelve atoms are required to magnetically store a single bit of information. This is accomplished by precisely aligning their magnetic properties such that they do not interfere with other groups of atoms located nearby. It is projected that this technology could increase magnetic storage density on a hard disk drive by a factor of 100.

I suppose (though this is pure speculation) that it may also be possible to create ultra-dense storage through the use of carbon nanotubes. And, since nanotubes are inherently 3-D structures, they may lend themselves to the fabrication of 3-D chips as well.

Whatever happens, two things are clear to me. First, we are nowhere near the end of miniaturization and, second, the ability to produce computing devices with human, or even superhuman, computing ability may be fairly close. Can the development of truly intelligent machines with the ability to both replicate and evolve be that far away? I certainly hope I’m still around to see this.

01/21/2013

This is not to say that embedded computing products are not
already found in the typical home. To be quite clear, embedded microcontrollers are
used in almost every new appliance that has any type of display, or has
features beyond the lowest cost bare-bones models. Embedded computing modules
and integrated systems, however, are generally not found in the home, as they
are much more expensive than functionally-comparable consumer products.
Furthermore, embedded computing products are usually designed with ruggedized,
but aesthetically plain, enclosures. Lastly, embedded computers usually have
the minimum hardware required for a given application and offer few, if any, extra
bells or whistles like CD-ROM or Blu-Ray burners. For these reasons, one might
assume that there was not much chance of embedded computing platforms gaining
traction in the consumer market. That is, until now.

As we visited AMD’s booth at last year’s Design/West
Embedded System Conference, we noticed that a company called Xi3 was showing a
modular computer that utilized AMD processors, called their “5 Series”. Xi3 was
demonstrating how these small, but reasonably powerful, modules could be
deployed in an array for supercomputing applications, as a ‘data center on a wheels’. Although our impression at the time was that these Xi3 units might not
be rugged enough for some military applications, the compact case size and
attractive form factor made some of us want to adopt one. As it turns out, we
were not alone.

There is buzz from the recent Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) that gaming company Valve is taking a financial interest in Xi3, and is considering
their modular computers for home use with its products. The Xi3 unit called
“Piston” has higher processor power, and is more graphically capable than versions
of the Series 5 Xi3 products that we saw in early 2012. With a base model starting
at ~$500 and a 240GB SSD version at ~$900, these Xi3 units are priced much
higher than similar capacity Xbox360 or Playstation 3 gaming products. On the
other hand, though, people used to pay two to three times these prices for the desktop
cube computer that Apple rolled out in 2001. These Xi3 products that were
originally developed for the embedded market are likely to be a lot more
reliable, while still having a sexy design that high end consumers will value.

With server and PC suppliers in many cases looking to expand away from traditional enterprise IT, consumer and SOHO markets by targeting embedded applications, Xi3 shows us that the tables can
be turned. It is certainly possible that additional embedded computer suppliers
will take some of their powerful and compact platforms and upscale them for the
luxury consumer market. This trend could get very interesting.

12/31/2012

A few days ago, I posed the above question in a blog on these pages – and answered it, at least to a degree, by talking about single-atom transistors. Although one (count it – one) has actually been made, the technology is a long way from being ubiquitous.

However, like global warming and climate change, the single-atom “wall” is real. And we are rapidly approaching it. Use of GPUs for general-purpose computing is a hedge against the wall; these have far more transistors than conventional CPUs and facilitate parallel computing. Intel, NVIDIA and AMD are all pursuing this approach to supercomputing. But this isn’t a long-term solution; GPUs are faced with the same wall.

Intel is pushing toward the Moore’s law limit through cooperative efforts with several outside firms. Intel has invested a staggering US$ 4.1 billion in ASML, a Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer. The investment will ultimately yield Intel a 15% share of ASML, and provides US$ 3.3 billion for R&D to make “extreme ultra-violet lithography” or EUVL (using super-short wavelengths of UV light for the etching process) practical, and to develop 450-mm wafers (as opposed to today’s 300-mm wafers). The former will enable 10-nm processes, while the latter will reduce manufacturing costs. And Intel isn’t the only one; Samsung has followed suit with an investment in ASML, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSMC) has also made a significant investment. TSMC purports to be the world’s largest independent semiconductor factory, and, although they are currently building three 300-mm wafer fabs, their current production is limited to 200-mm.

Increasing transistor density by shrinking their size is only one way of battling the approaching wall. TSMC and one of its rivals, GlobalFoundries (GloFo), as well as Intel and the rest of the usual suspects, are actively pursuing 3-D chip technology. 3-D chips have been made; Intel’s Ivy Bridge architecture utilizes 3-D technology. 3-D transistors, called FinFETs, promise to both increase speed and reduce power consumption.

3-D ICs

3-D integrated circuits, which will allow far greater transistor density in a given planar footprint, are on their way. However, fabrication of these is not a trivial matter. Early versions comprised stacking dice atop one another with an insulating layer between, and interconnecting the dies using a rather laborious process. This was called “Chip Stack MCM,” and didn’t produce a “real” 3-D chip. But, by 2008, 3-D IC technology had progressed to the point that four types had been defined, as follows:

(1) Monolithic, wherein components and their interconnections were built in layers on a single wafer which was then diced into 3-D chips. This technology has been the subject of a DARPA grant, with research conducted at Stanford University.

(2) Wafer-on-Wafer, wherein components are built on separate wafers, which are then aligned, bonded and diced into 3-D ICs. Vertical connections comprise “through-silicon vias” (TSVs) which may either be built into the wafers before bonding or created in the stack after bonding. This process is fraught with technical difficulties, not the least of which is relatively low yield.

(3) Die-on-Wafer, where components are built on two wafers. One is then diced, with the individual dice aligned and bonded onto sites on the second wafer. TSV creation may be done either before or after bonding. Additional layers may be added before the final dicing.

(4) Die-on-Die, where components are built on multiple dice which are then aligned and bonded. TSVs may be created either before or after bonding.

There are obvious technical difficulties and pitfalls, no matter which approach is used. These include yield factors (a single defective dice may make an entire stack useless; thermal concerns (caused by the density of components; difficulty of automating manufacture; and a lack of standards.

In my layman’s opinion, a new approach to 3-D technology may be needed before it becomes truly viable. Currently components are built on wafers through the selective removal of material. Construction of 3-D chips could be simplified through selective deposition of material rather than its removal. However, that’s beyond today’s state-of-the-art.

As we look at biological equivalents, though, it’s very clear that brains are 3-D structures. I doubt that true artificial intelligence can be realized in a relatively small package without the development of true 3-D chips. Moore’s law will ultimately stymie continued development of planar chip technology.

Stay tuned for part 3 – there’s a really interesting development out there!

If the Verizon technology described in the patent is deployed, that same type of technology mentioned in the
previous blog on signage might one day apply in your living room. The Verizon technology would monitor the TV
viewing area using microphones, cameras and or sensors. These sensors could be
located in the set-top box, TV, and/or mobile device. Verizon’s overall goal
would be to gain situational awareness of the TV viewers to allow targeted
advertising.

Deploying this type of situational awareness technology will
have to be done very carefully to avoid offending customers. The deployment will also need to be
extremely securely to avoid any risk that the system would be hacked and expose
customers to remote eavesdroppers/peepers. The risk that law enforcement would
want to leverage such as system for court approved wiretaps can also not be
discounted. To be clear, Verizon has only applied for the patent, there is no
indication that this is close to an actual product at this point.

Verizon certainly would not be the first company with home
intrusive-technology. If you have ever played Xbox360 Kinnect, you have seen
that it snaps pictures of game participants. In addition to showing them on-screen
after the game action finishes as entertainment, the Xbox 360 transmits some of
these back to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform where the data is stripped of
identifying elements but is often used by game developers as a part of a feedback
process.

Embedded processors and situational intelligence will have
an increasing presence in our home lives and certainly some of this is likely
to be a bit creepy. In tomorrow’s blog, we will examine how this technology can
be deployed for excellent non controversial causes such reducing the number and severity of
tragedies like Sandy Hook and the Aurora Theatre.

12/17/2012

In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know this, in 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double approximately every two years. Empirically based on economic factors as well as technical ones, his observation and conclusion has been so accurate that it has been given the title “Moore’s Law.” Certain pundits continually predict that we are reaching the end of the trail, and that the trend cannot continue because miniaturization technology will reach its limit. (It should be noted that Moore’s Law doesn’t specify the size of the IC die; logically one should be able to fit more transistors on a larger die – but that’s another story.)

The Ivy Bridge architecture, which utilizes a 22 nanometer fabrication process, comprises Intel’s product offerings for 2012. The firm’s next generation micro-architecture, code named Haswell, is expected to arrive in 2013 and will continue to use the 22 nm process. In 2014, the process will be shrunk to 14 nm with Roswell. Down the road, the process is expected to shrink even more, getting down to 10 nm by 2018.

How long can this go on?

Well, there is certainly at least one real limit, which is the size of the transistors themselves. A combined team of researchers from the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne and Purdue University has recently created a functional transistor comprising a single phosphorus atom. Furthermore, they have also developed a wire made from a combination of phosphorus and silicon, one atom tall and four atoms wide, that behaves like a copper wire. Granted, this technology is far from practicable at this point in that it has to be maintained at a temperature of minus 391 degrees F, but it does show what is possible.

As circuits get smaller and smaller, other laws of physics come into play, causing additional technical problems. Dr. Michio Kaku (surely you’ve seen him on TV - if not, you should!) of CCNY says that, once transistors shrink to 5 atoms wide (projected for 2020) the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle will come into play. This states that it is not possible to know both the position and velocity of any particle; that one can only know one or the other. Thus one cannot know precisely where an electron actually is, and therefore cannot confine it to a wire. Since free electrons can’t be allowed to go bouncing about in any logic circuit because they may cause shorts (or, at least, logical errors), this may prove to be a practical limit.

Some pundits have theorized, though, that getting down to these sizes may allow the development of true quantum computing, wherein information is processed on a more-than-binary level. This remains to be seen.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in this space. Some practical, some not so much. Stay tuned, as I plan to do a couple of additional blogs on this subject before I retire sometime next year.

09/21/2012

On Monday through Wednesday of this week, VDC attended the
Design East ESC show at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. In yesterday's blog we talked about the embeddy. In today's blog we will look at some of our experiences at the show. At this year’s show, we noted several themes:
safety & regulation, security, connectivity as well as the usual
performance, power, and price trends.

Connectivity Trends:
A few years ago, the VDC perception while attending ESC Boston and Freescale’s
Technology Forum, was that many members of the embedded community had
significant uncertainty around what communications standards would become prominent.
In mid-2012, this has not changed entirely because suppliers still tend to
support as many standards as reasonably possible. But, presently, we believe there
is more traction for Bluetooth and WiFi, and less emphasis on Zigbee. It was clear from multiple conversations we
had with component and system suppliers that both Bluetooth and WiFi have made
huge in-roads into the embedded markets. This makes tremendous sense with the
proliferation of smart portable devices in the market offering a natural HMI
interface and Bluetooth and WiFi are on virtually every one of them.

A few highlights from
the VDC Embedded Hardware Team at the show:

Keynotes: There
were two great keynote speeches by Futuretainment author Mike Walsh and MIT’s Rosalind
W. Picard, Sc.D., FIEEE. VDC’s quick takeaway from these keynotes is that
embedded system designers need to increasingly take into account the social and
emotional aspects of the market and end users instead of focusing on the
technical and financial components. That’s why companies like Intel are hiring
Anthropologists and MIT’s media lab projects are so compelling. (If you missed
them, hopefully UBM will post these keynotes or at least some highlights from
them)

Aci Technology: We visited the Aci Technology
(aka Arise Computer) booth and saw several of their fanless and industrial
computer solutions that were targeted at markets including kiosks and gaming as
well as retail automation.

Connect Tech: We
had a great briefing from Connect Tech and we noted their growing line of
embedded integrated computer systems based on their IP and overall experience
designing embedded solutions for OEMs. We had previously seen an interesting
case where Bluefin Robotics engaged Connect Tech to develop a single PC/104
board solution that contained the functionality that formerly required 3 times
the space. It is this type of design expertise that has led to recent wearable
computing solutions for military applications.

Freescale: With
more and more connected devices, and increasingly private data (medical records
for example) being transferred through networks, the need for security around
medical systems is increasingly relevant. Freescale had its Home Health Hub
(HHH) reference platform on display. The hub serves as a central connection
point for multiple wireless health devices such as pulse oximeters, blood
glucose monitors, weight scales, etc. The hub can also share information
gathered from these devices with a display device such as a tablet. Freescale’s
wireless partner on this project was Digi International, who provides their iDigi Telehealth
Application Kit which includes the Freescale HHH reference board.

Microchip: During
the show, Microchip announced a new series of 8-bit MCUs across three lines of
its PIC family microcontrollers (PIC16F145X, PIC18F2X/4XK50, and PIC18F97J94)
that are within its USB 2.0 family. Featuring an internal crystal that saves
$0.15 on the microcontroller’s cost, a wide range of pin counts, and low power
consumption, these PIC microcontrollers are helping to round out Microchip’s
USB enabled MCUs. Microchip will begin ramping up production on these chips in
November, with sampling on some of the product family already available.

NXP: NXP announced
two new microcontrollers, the LPC408x and the LPC407x, that include ARM
Cortex-M4 processors. Intended applications include displays, scanners, medical
diagnostics, and motor-control applications among others. These MCUs also have
pin capability and innovative peripherals, and provide for ease of
qualification. They also provide migration capabilities between NXP’s Cortex-M3
families towards the high performance LPC4300.

Sierra Wireless:
We heard about their new AirPrime device that will allow OEMs to produce
embedded systems that more easily allow their customers to switch cellular
carriers. This can be an important cost saving feature as the OEMs customers
can aggressively seek out the best deals between the cellular companies and can
easily reconfigure as needed.

ST Microelectronics:
At the ST Microelectronics booth the VDC team heard about their latest 32 bit
microcontrollers that are part of the substantial and still growing ST product
array of MCUs. The STM32 F3 series had many impressive capabilities including
floating point and options that included 16-bit A/D converters. The F3 product
line already has many different members with more on the roadmap so, in most
all cases, an engineer can select the exact ST MCU product that meets their
needs without paying for functionality that they don’t require. The F3 series
was also pin compatible with the F1 series and that allows an engineer to
upscale a previously designed product with minimal development costs. The VDC
team was also impressed with the ST dual interface M2LR series of EEPROM
products that can be accessed via I2C wireline bus or using passive
RFID technology.

Texas Instruments:
In addition to the RM46x that won the
VDC Embeddy award, the VDC team also saw several other TI products including
the Stellaris Launch Pad that is currently priced at $4.99. This product
empowers embedded system engineers to develop new products using TI’s Stellaris
M4 ARM based microcontroller. This development kit is augmented by a myriad
number of “BoosterPack” boards made by TI and a number of their partners that
can be stacked together to do proof of concept on a complete product solution.

L-R Chris Rommel (VDC), Dev Pradhan (TI), David Laing (VDC)

Qualcomm: Perhaps
one of the most interesting attendees at the show was Qualcomm. Better known as
a provider of mobile phone applications processors, Qualcomm is beginning to
explore the embedded market with its Snapdragon S4 processor. Qualcomm
co-presented its Snapdragon processor line alongside its embedded partner, Intrinsyc Software International, which
bases its Open-Q System-On-Module around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.

A
Focus on Storage:
With a VDC EHW project focused on storage trends within embedded integrated
computer systems (EICS) kicking off in 2013, the VDC team made it a point to
visit the booths of the memory/SSD companies that were at the show. We saw the
latest product offerings from Kingston
Digital, Swissbit, and Transcend Information. The EICS
suppliers that we have spoken with about storage have indicated that
memory/storage products can vary greatly with respect to speed, capacity, cost,
and overall longevity. Depending on the application, a particular memory/SSD
product would be suitable while another similar unit may not be. Why is that?
Stay tuned in early 2013 and we will likely blog on that very subject. If you
want more information, we would be thrilled to have your company as a founding
sponsor for the report.

Next week we will be providing some detail on an Intel presentation that was given during the ESC show to highlight their Intelligent Systems Framework.

09/20/2012

Yesterday, VDC presented the Embeddy Award for the hardware
category at the Design East Embedded System Conference in Boston. After careful
consideration, we chose the Hercules RM46x ARM Cortex-R4 safety microcontroller
from Texas Instruments. The Hercules RM46x that was presented to our team is
designed for safe motor control applications and is further enhanced by the
accompanying SafeTI design packages and a safe power management product that
was also announced at the show. Our embedded hardware team made the Hercules
RM46x the Embeddy winner because we believe it addresses several key themes we
are seeing in the overall machine and process safety markets.

As a general rule, the Embeddy award process considers product announcements and briefings, and/or demonstrations. Each qualifying product is
evaluated based upon their corporate, technological and industry significance
and availability.

Functional
Safety research conducted by VDC Research in 2011 found that OEMs and Systems
Integrators are always looking for new components and tools that enable them to
safely integrate systems and total solution sets in ways that prevent injuries
to humans. To do this, it is important for the controller to have redundant
features that can detect any malfunction of itself and/or the hardware that it
is connected to. VDC believes that the Hercules
RM46x goes a long way to enable an OEM to produce motorized equipment that has
the targeted SIL and ratings meets the necessary standards such IEC 61508 and
ISO 26262. The resulting products that will be created by using the RM46x are
critical to many markets including the process industry, industrial automation/robotics,
medical equipment, as well as transportation infrastructure and electric
vehicles.

The Embeddy Award for
hardware was presented before the keynote speech on Wednesday to TI’s Dev Pradhan who is the Product Line Manager for the Hercules
series of microcontrollers.

In the next few days we will post the part-2 of the Design East ESC show blog where we will highlight many other interesting products and companies that we saw at the show. Stay tuned!!

09/11/2012

There's still time to connect with the VDC Research Embedded Hardware & Software team at the ESC show next week but the coveted time-slots on Tuesday are rapidly being taken. If you believe you have a new product that qualifies for one of the VDC embeddy awards contact us as soon as possible as at least one member of the VDC team needs to see the product demo/briefing during or before the show. The winners will be notified on Tuesday evening and announced just before Wednesday's keynote speech.

The VDC team will be at the show site starting on Monday and, of course we can also schedule meetings on Wednesday as well.

If you would like to schedule a meeting around Embedded Hardware, please contact:

08/27/2012

VDC Research Group will be joining the Design East/Embedded Systems
Conference 2012 exhibition and conference. During the conference, we
will be presenting the coveted VDC Embeddy awards to a deserving product
in the software and hardware categories. To make sure your
product is considered, please make sure that:

The product is formally announced at the show or, has been announced as of August, 2012

That the VDC Research team will be briefed on the details of the product by your show staff.

Note: The Embeddys will be presented before Wednesday's keynote address. Therefore the briefings need to be completed by the evening of Tuesday September 18th.

VDC’s Embedded Hardware Team will be available at the show starting Monday September 17th and will be
at the conference through the 19th. During that time, we welcome the
opportunity to connect with attending vendors. We look forward to
explaining VDC’s research methodology, learning about your latest
product releases, and discussing your market research and strategic
needs.